Welcome to COUNTERCLOCK.

OUR MISSION

COUNTERCLOCK is a not-for-profit arts organization committed to exploring the diversity, complexity, and resilience of the human experience through the creative and interdisciplinary arts. Primarily, we are a literary arts journal that publishes creative writing, art, and cross-genre work twice a year, with an affiliated blog for longer-form nonfiction writing and reviews. In addition to that, we host the summer Arts Collective, a fellowship for writers, musicians, and artists to collaborate, and PATCHWORK, where we pair poets and filmmakers to adapt original poetry into short films. All of these initiatives are tied together by the journal: all works created in the other initiatives are published by the journal, and submissions to our journal are open to everyone, regardless of age or geographic location. The journal will always be free to submit to and read online.

Our mission is, and always has been, to heal, destigmatize, and empower through the arts, both literary and visual; to explore the diversity, complexity, and resilience of the human experience. We hope to give dimension to voices that are commonly oversimplified and oppressed; we wish to highlight the beauty in what clings to the soft underbelly of a narrative polished for the mainstream media. We love the quotidian, and we love to question it.

We’d like to be taught something we don’t know; we’re attracted to experimentation, innovation, and beauty. We think there’s a vein of white light, a little bit of electricity, a red pulse in every field of the arts. We only ask that you be as honest as you can in your writing or art.

Image: “Echoes in the Remains,” Isabella Lobo (Issue 13)

OUR STORY

It was the summer of 2017, and Rachel Sucher, Claire Lee, and Sarah Feng were classmates in an online writing studio. A studio-wide group chat had been created, where mentors and students asked for general advice on their writing, send funny quips about the writing process, and share playlists to write to. In a small offshoot of that chat, the three decided to create a literary arts magazine, to be published online and to house voices that they found honest, innovative, daring, and true to experiences not often highlighted in traditional media.

Excited with their new idea, they created an email, a free website, and a Facebook page, bringing several friends onto staff and asking many more to submit. In late August, a website saw the light of the day, branded with what is now the COUNTERCLOCK clock. Submissions are open! it read. And short stories, poetry, paintings, and photography started to trickle into the inbox from writers and artists all around the world, of all ages and experiences. We do not require any specific background or level of credentials for individuals to submit. In November, we published our first issue, featuring Vakseen’s artwork on the cover and the words of Woody Woodger, Leah Chase, Grace Coberly, and others within – many of whom later joined our team as staff readers for the journal or mentors for the Collective.

Since our first issue, COUNTERCLOCK has grown to become more than just a literary arts magazine. We also host an interdisciplinary arts fellowship, the COUNTERCLOCK Arts Collective, and provide a paid Feedback Corner service. We write advance reviews on our blog and publish columns on poetic and cultural commentary.

Image: “blocker,” Anthony Santulli (Issue 15)

INITIATIVES

  • COUNTERCLOCK Journal is the literary journal of poetry, prose, cross-genre work, and visual art that we have published since 2017. We welcome submissions from everyone, regardless of past experience in writing or art! Browse past issues here.

    We currently nominate for the major anthology awards, and we have been recognized by the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Anthology.

  • COUNTERCLOCK Arts Collective is the annual arts collective, where we pair emerging writers, visual artists, and musicians to create interdisciplinary projects. Anyone who meets our age eligibility can apply for future summers.

  • We pair poets with filmmakers to adapt original poetry into short films. Our first COUNTERCLOCK mini-film-festival debuted January 2021. Explore PATCHWORK here.

  • Special folios are special curations of topical poetry.

    In 2020, we invited poets from around the world to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Guest-edited by Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, this folio includes 12 poets and their work addressing the unprecedented global epidemic that has seized our present and rerouted our future. Submissions are currently open for our Pop Punk Poetics folio until March 15, 2024.

  • Counterpoint is the informal name for our blog. Here, we publish cultural commentary, book reviews, and mini-series where we, as editors and staff members, write about whatever fascinates us, interwoven with poetry and media. (You can pitch ideas for columns or articles at counterclockjournal@gmail.com.)

  • COUNTERCLOCK Emerging Writer’s Awards are exactly what they sound like. We can’t wait to read your submission!

Will you consider supporting our mission?

Our mission has always been to empower and to heal through the arts through an accessible, free medium. Our staff is not paid; all financial contributions will be go toward paying honorariums to guest lecturers and donations towards nonprofit organizations working for civil rights causes.

Please consider making a contribution to COUNTERCLOCK today.